The Divine Michelangelo Exhibition

Testimonials

Following the success we had with the Da Vinci Machines exhibition in 2014, we were extremely excited to host the Michelangelo exhibition in 2016. Thanks to the broad appeal of the Renaissance master, this visually appealing exhibition helped us engage with our community and brought lots of people who’ve never been in the gallery. School groups encouraged families who wouldn’t otherwise visit.

Geoff Dobson
Director Burnie Regional Art Gallery

Members of the Friends of the Burnie Regional Art Gallery were delighted with the response from the public, especially local people. We felt that the exhibition had sparked an interest in art and provided an opportunity for many, who were not particularly interested in the arts, to view “close up” the excellent reproductions by one of the most important artists from the Renaissance period.
Members were proud to have the opportunity to be part of such an educational and beautiful exhibition.
The sculptures also provided an opportunity for students to see the actual chisel marks which could be seen in unfinished work.

Joan Kelly
President, Friends of the Burnie Art Gallery

The Michelangelo exhibition is the culmination of years of collaborative research and planning by the Artisans of Florence – International with the Niccolai Group and I Muri Dell’Arte Firenze. The aim of the exhibition, the most complete ever presented on Michelangelo, is to provide visitors with an unparalleled experience, immersing them into the daily life of one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance: a sculptor, a painter, an architect and a poet.

The work of Michelangelo epitomises 16th Century European style, characterised by heroic centralised figures, technical mastery, and a mature humanistic content. The curated exhibition is structured into five themes:

Theme 1 – ERA OF MICHELANGELO
Michelangelo’s life story and his extraordinary achievements spanning the years of a young Michelangelo until his death in 1564 are presented with a timeline, impressive paintings and significant statues.

These impressive and evocative full-scale sculptures are created from Michelangelo’s original casts. Outside of Italy they can only be seen together at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Theme 3 – PAINTING
Visitors can get a rare close-up glimpse of sections from the magnificent frescoes Michelangelo painted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling until his death at age 80. Also presented here, side by side for the first time, are a full-scale reconstruction of Leonardo da Vinci’s Battle of Anghiari painting, thought to have been lost for many years, and Michelangelo’s unfinished masterpiece, the Battle of Cascina.

Theme 4 – ARCHITECTURE
Reproductions of Michelangelo’s drawings together with large scale graphic panels, seen as though you are standing inside St Peter’s Square, capture the essence of Michelangelo’s outstanding contribution to architecture.

Theme 5 – BOTTEGA (Renaissance Workshop)
The Bottega installation is a full-scale reproduction of a Renaissance painter/scientist workshop with furniture made from the materials of the time and featuring period tools and implements; canvas, wooden easels, clay, marble, sand, lime and stones. Activities for visitors include clay sculpting, using clay tablets and tools. Using a pantograph, an indispensible machine used by artists during the Renaissance to copy and enlarge drawings, visitors can make their own copy of the Master’s drawings.